1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a functional device that processes a predetermined function, and an access system including a functional device and an access apparatus that is connected to the functional device by communication and controls the functional device
2. Related Art
For recording media that store digital data such as music content and video data, there are various types such as magnetic disks, optical disks, and magneto-optical disks. Out of these recording media, a memory card that uses a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory as a recording element can achieve miniaturization of a recording medium, and thus, rapidly becomes popular mainly for compact portable devices such as digital still cameras and mobile phone terminals. Furthermore, recently, a semiconductor memory has started to be used not only for applications as removable media which can be removed such as conventional memory cards, but also for applications as device's built-in storage, e.g., a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory is built in a device and is used instead of a hard disk.
Meanwhile, due to the advances in wireless technology, the miniaturization, increase in functionality, and reduction in cost of LSIs for wireless such as 802.11 series, Bluetooth (registered trademark), are progressing. By this, wireless function has started to be provided to truly various terminals including not only mobile terminals such as mobile phones, Smartphones, and digital still cameras, but also stationary terminals such as TVs and hard disk recorders. As one application example thereof, there is proposed a memory card with wireless communication function where wireless function is provided to a conventional memory card (e.g., JP 2002-366919 A). The memory card with wireless function has the same interface shape as conventional type memory cards, and thus, can share an interface with a host device having a slot for conventional memory cards. Accordingly, without mounting hardware and software resources for wireless communication to the host device side, the memory card with wireless function can support wireless communication at low cost.
Conventionally, posting of still images to a web service or the like need to be performed by removing a memory card from a digital still camera and then placing the memory card in a PC or the like. However, placing the memory card with wireless function in a digital still camera, posting of still images to a web service or the like can be directly performed from the digital still camera. As such, the memory card with wireless function enables a host device to be easily connected to a network.
Furthermore, providing wireless communication function to a memory card also enables a use case in which memory cards are directly wirelessly connected to each other to exchange files therebetween. By this, for example, still images shot at an event such as a field day, a wedding, and so on can be handed over to a person right there, and thus pictures can be exchanged more easily.
Furthermore, there is proposed a method in which a memory card itself is provided with only wireless function and reading and writing of data are performed by accessing mass storage such as an external hard disk through wireless communication (e.g., Specification of US 2003/0018852 A). In this case, advantages that, for example, storage capacity can be easily added and a plurality of memory cards with wireless function can simultaneously access common storage can be received.